For It's Time For Four School

Unlike a school in the summertime, Alex once again has class. He's back at the lab school at Hood College where students majoring in early childhood development get to experiment on him and test the theories they are learning about.

This year he is in Ms. Noggles 4 year old class. They meet 3 days a week for 2 hours a day, which coincidentally was the typical class load that I showed up for in college. I'm not sure what he'll be studying this year, but I can tell you that the flow of random art projects has already begun.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

As the end of summer rapidly approaches, it is time once again or for soccer. Both kids are playing this time, Alex on a U6 team and Ella on a U4 team.

Saturday was the first game for Alex's team which I think calls themselves The Avalance, but I call them the Gray Team. The U6 games are 3 on 3 with no goalies. At any given time about 4 kids know which goal they should be shooting at. The Gray team played the White team, and it's a good thing that they don't keep score. If they had, Gray would have lost many to zero.
An hour later and one field over, it was time for the second practice of Ella's U4 team. In U4 they don't play games, but instead work on learning skills. What I've learned is that anyone less than 3 is probably too young for organized sports. Ella seems to enjoy it though, except during the times that she is crying or throwing a fit. She does like wearing the shirt.

Delaware Redux

In what seems to have become an annual trip, we again spent Labor Day week with the Brock side of the family at the Delaware seashore. Though the activities were basically the same as in years past, the kids ability to keep up and participate made a huge difference. Some highlights of the week include:

• Getting knocked around by Ernesto fueled waves
  
• A visit to Funland on the Rhehobath boardwalk
  
• An Oreo milkshake at Applebees (which I realize is not that exotic, but hey, it was really good)
  
• A tour of the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, DE. (read about on my SoapBox)
• Going on safari's at James Farm Ecological Preserve
  

There was a lot more good stuff, but to save a few thousand words, I'll just add some more pictures: